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Posts Tagged ‘Drought in China’

Central China is now in a state of almost permanent drought

No end in sight for the severe drought that has plagued central China. Image credit: gmw.com via Xinhua.More images…

China’s largest freshwater lake rapidly shrinking

Meantime, surface area of Poyang Lake, in China’s Jiangxi Province, has shrunk to less than 6 percent of its original size of more than 3,500km²

An early dry season this year, which began in mid-October, has reduced the lake into shallow streams, said a report.

China’s largest freshwater lake, Poyang Lake, is drying up, causing a severe shortage of drinking water in the region, crippling the local fishing industry and threatening the lake’s ecology. Image credit: News.com via Xinhua. More images…

The lake has been subject to prolonged dry seasons since the 1990s due to persistent droughts, and reduced water supplies from the Yangtze River due to hydroelectric dams.

Other contributing factors include increasing water use and damage to the lake bed.

The crisis has caused a severe shortage of drinking water, crippling the local fishing industry and threatening the lake’s ecology, said the report.

“Meteorological data showed the province has received 60 percent less precipitation since September than the average over the same period since records began in 1952.”

Additionally, a cluster of 29 dams erected on the upper reaches of the Yangtze river, which includes the Three Gorges Dam, store a total of up to 53 billion cubic meters of water, contributing to the death of Poyang, according to China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research.

Large numbers of migrating Siberian cranes used to spend the winter on Poyang Lake.

About 5 percent of China’s population directly affected by drought

FIRE-EARTH Models show up to 60 million people in China are affected by the persistent drought in at least 12 provinces.

Hundreds of rivers, lakes and reservoirs along the Yangtze River have dried up amid worsening drought, said the local drought relief headquarters.

“Figures released by the Hubei Provincial Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters on Friday showed that 900 reservoirs and 132 rivers have been affected by the drought, causing one-third of the province’s farmland to dry up.”

Widespread drought has severely affected also the provinces of Hunan and Guizhou , as well as Chongqing Municipality in the Yangtze River valley, a major rice-producing area.

Original caption: Villagers pump [the last drops of] water from the riverbed of a dried river to farmland in Jiangjiaping Village, Qiyang County of central China’s Hunan Province, Aug. 2, 2013. Hunan Province has been hit by the most severe drought in 10 years since July, which caused drinking water shortages for about 1.38 million local people by Aug. 1. The local authorities has taken measures to combat the drought. (Xinhua/Li Ga). More images…

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China bans milk powder imports from New Zealand, Australia

China has banned imports of all milk powder from New Zealand and Australia, New Zealand’s trade minister said. The ban comes after bacteria that can cause botulism found in some dairy products, said a report.

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Monsoon floods kill at least 100 people in Pakistan, Afghanistan

A vast region in Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan has again suffered devastating monsoon floods for a third consecutive year.

The floods have destroyed or damaged thousands of homes and businesses, as well as much of the local infrastructure in both countries. Meantime, officials have warned that more rain could hit the region.

In 2010, the worst monsoon floods in Pakistan’s history left about 2,000 people dead and affected more than 21 million others.

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Severe flooding displaces more than 247,000 people in southern Philippines

At least 20 towns were flooded in the southern island of Mindanao, following a week of monsoon rains, displacing about quarter of a million people, the country’s national disaster relief agency said.

Drought affecting 27 mln people in China: Ministry of Civil Affairs

Persistent drought since June has affected 27.11 million people in “11 provincial-level areas across China,” said the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA).

The drought has left 5.1 million people and 1.56 million livestock short of drinking water, with the direct economic losses put at 12.21 billion yuan (1.99 billion U.S dollars), MCA reported.

The drought has also damaged or destroyed 2.6 million hectares of crops nationwide, according to the report.

Original caption: Drought has affected the growth of corns in Dongshan Village of Pengshui County, southwest China’s Chongqing, Aug. 1, 2013. Lingering droughts in Chongqing have resulted in sever damage for crops and shortage of water supply. (Xinhua/Chen Cheng). More images…

Tens of millions affected by severe drought, heat wave in China

Drought has affected tens of millions of people in southern, southwestern, eastern and central China, leaving millions of people and livestock short of drinking water, and damaging or destroying millions of hectares of crops.

The drought is forecast to intensify and spread in the coming days and weeks, and heat wave to linger.

Original caption: A farmer pulls a cow to drink in a dried pool in Qianguang Village, Yuping County of southwest China’s Guizhou Province, July 29, 2013. Due to little rainfall and high temperature, 38 counties in Guizhou Province faced with serious drought in recent days. (Xinhua/Yao Lei). More images …

Shanghai, China’s financial capital, is set to have the hottest July on record.

Shanghai saw a high of 39.1ºC on Monday, the 7th straight day for temperatures to remain above 38 degrees, and the longest period of on record.

Many cities in [neighboring] Zhejiang saw temperatures rise above 40 degrees Celsius on a couple days last week. Meanwhile, the heat is worsening the drought in the province, which received 74 percent less rain than normal in the first 29 days of July. (Xinhua)

Original caption: A boy sits on the chapped riverbeds near the Wantou Bridge over Yaojiang River in Ningbo, east China’s Zhejiang Province, July 28, 2013. Unrelenting heat in Ningbo has drawn the water table of the Yaojiang River down and parts of the beds were chapped, which led to the death of mussels and fish. (Xinhua/Hu Xuejun)

Hunan meteorologic center issued orange alert for drought on Monday

Many cities in Hunan also endured record-high temperatures this month. The provincial capital Changsha reported temperatures at or above 35 degrees Celsius in all of the past 29 days.

Temperatures could climb to 41ºC in Hunan’s central and eastern parts, the report said.

The province also received over 70 percent less rain than normal this month, leaving 33 counties and cities to contend with a severe drought.

Original caption: A villager walks on a dried-up bed of Shima Reservoir at Shima Village of Shaoyang County, central China’s Hunan Province, July 27, 2013. A drought that has already lasted several weeks is continuing to linger in Hunan, leaving 533,000 people short of drinking water. (Xinhua/Zeng Yong). More images …

July Heat

At least 43 counties and cities in southern China have seen temperatures top 40ºC so far this month, said China’s National Meteorological Center.

Millions Short of Drinking Water in S, SW and Central China

Disastrous drought continues to plague parts of Guizhou, Hunan and Hubei provinces, affecting at least 12 million people. More than 3 million people and 2 million livestock have been affected by severe shortages of drinking water, and the drought is expected to continue, the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said. As of July 26, about 2.5 million hectares of farmland have also been affected.

“Since the start of July, the amount of precipitation in those areas has been down dramatically from that recorded during the same period of last year, the headquarters said.”

“In the coming days, droughts are likely to continue in those regions as high temperatures and little precipitation persist, according to the country’s weather forecasters.”

Guizhou Province: Persistent and widespread droughts in southwest China’s Guizhou Province have affected up to 10 million people in more than 200 counties since mid-June. More than 1 million people lack adequate supplies of drinking water, and about 600,000 hectares of crops is being lost or damaged by the drought, said the provincial government.

Hunan Province: Severe drought has spread in central China’s Hunan Province leaving more 1.15 million people short of drinking water.

“Over 100 counties in 14 cities and prefectures in the province have been affected by the drought. About 6 million mu (400,000 hectares) of crops have also been affected and 311,000 heads of livestock lack adequate amounts of drinking water, according to the headquarters,” said a report.

“The province has sent 2.5 million people and 13,000 water tankers to irrigate croplands and provide water for 365,000 people, the headquarters said.”

YOU Could Be Next!

Original Caption: Resident Lyu Youde walks on the dried-up pond bed at Jingtang Village of Wufengpu Town in Shaoyang County, central China’s Hunan Province, July 24, 2013. A drought that has lasted since early July has left 533,000 people short of drinking water in the province. 107 counties of 14 cities and prefectures in the province have been affected by the drought, with about 6027,000 hectares of crops damaged and 311,000 heads of livestock short of water. Also in the province, 186 rivers and 252 reservoirs are dry. (Xinhua/Li Ga). More images…

Global Disasters/ Significant Events – Sunday 12 May 2013

Drought Affecting 3.58 Million Hectares of Farmland

Scorching drought in China’s western and central regions has affected at least 3.58 million hectares of farmland, [that’s an area the size of Taiwan,] drought relief authorities said.

Affected land used to grow crops totaled 2.13 million hectares, lower than the average acreage of 6.3 million hectares over the past few years, according to a statement from the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.”

At least 5.54 million people and 3.99 million livestock in the two drought-stricken regions are currently short of drinking water, the report said.

Rainstorms Destroy Thousands of Homes, Affect one million in southern and eastern China

Extreme Rain Events have battered southern and eastern China since last week, destroying thousands of homes, and affecting at least a million people, said a report.

As of Saturday, rainstorms have affected about 850,000 people, toppled more than 2,200 homes and forced 14,000 citizens to relocate in Hunan.

Rainstorms have affected about 196,800 people in east China’s Jiangxi Province, local authorities said Saturday.

As of 11 p.m. Friday, the heavy rain, which started from Tuesday, has battered 26 counties in Jiangxi, the provincial flood prevention and drought control headquarters said.

The storms have destroyed about 20,000 hectares of crops, and left tens of thousands displaced.

Other Global Disasters/ Significant Events

Homes in Lake County, about 100 miles north of San Francisco, are breaking apart and sinking into cavernous fractures that had first appeared as cracks in the ground.

“We have a dormant volcano, and I’m certain a lot of things that happen here (in Lake County) are as a result of that, but we don’t know about that,” county public works director Scott De Leon told Yahoo News.

Associated Press/Rich Pedroncelli – In this photo taken Monday, May 6, 2013 Robin and Scott Spivey walk past the wreckage of their Tudor-style dream home they had to abandon when the ground gave way causing it to drop 10 feet below the street in Lakeport, Calif. Officials believe that water that has bubbled to the surface is playing a role, in the collapse of the hillside subdivision that has forced the evacuation of 10 homes and the notice of imminent evacuation of another 10 in this upscale subdivision. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli). More images…

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At least 40 killed, 100 injured as explosions shake Turkish town

At least 46 people were killed and 100 others injured, 50 of them seriously, after 3 powerful explosions shook the Turkish town of Reyhanli in the southern Turkish province of Hatay, near the border with Syria, authorities have said.

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Yet another deadly coal mine blast in China

Death toll from a coal mine explosion on Saturday in southwest China’s Sichuan Province rose to 27, local authorities said.

The blast occurred in Taozigou colliery, Luxian County in the city of Luzhou, according to officials.

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Bangladesh death toll rises to 1125

Death toll from the collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory complex in Bangladesh rose to 1,126 by 3:00pm ( local time) on Sunday, after 16 additional bodies were discovered in the rubble, 19 days after the building collapsed, officials said.

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Novel Coronavirus Kills 2 More People in Saudi Arabia

Two more people have died from novel coronavirus (nCoV) in an outbreak in al-Ahsa region of Saudi Arabia, Reuters quoted a Saudi official as saying.

The latest cluster of infections includes 15 confirmed cases, including 9 deaths, the official has reported.

From April 2012 to [May 8, 2013,] a total of 33 people from Saudi Arabia [2 others reported dead on May 12,] Qatar, Jordan, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, and France were confirmed to have an infection caused by the novel coronavirus, CDC reported.

Saudi Arabia: 24 people; 13 of them died [at least 15 dead as of May 12, 2013]

Qatar: 2 people; both survived

Jordan: 2 people; both died

UK: 3 people; 2 died, 1 recovered

UAE: 1 person; died

France: 1 person, receiving treatment

Coronaviruses are a cause of the common cold. A coronavirus also was the cause of the severe respiratory illness called SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome). SARS caused a global epidemic in 2003, but there have not been any known cases of SARS since 2004. This novel coronavirus is not the same coronavirus that caused SARS. —CDC

We know this virus has infected people since 2012, but we don’t know where this virus lives. We know that when people get infected, many of them develop severe pneumonia. What we don’t know is how often people might develop mild disease. We also know that most of the persons who have been infected so far have been older men, often with other medical conditions. We are not sure why we are seeing this pattern and if it will change over time. —WHO

The greatest global concern, however, is about the potential for this new virus to spread. This is partly because the virus has already caused severe disease in multiple countries, although in small numbers, and has persisted in the region since 2012. Of most concern, however, is the fact that the different clusters seen in multiple countries increasingly support the hypothesis that when there is close contact this novel coronavirus can transmit from person-to-person. This pattern of person-to- person transmission has remained limited to some small clusters and so far, there is no evidence that this virus has the capacity to sustain generalized transmission in communities. —WHO

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DISASTER CALENDAR – May 12, 2013—SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,035 Days Left

Mass die-offs resulting from human impact and the planetary response to the anthropogenic assault could occur by early 2016.

SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,035 Days Left to ‘Worst Day’ in the brief Human History

Ice storm damage estimated at $26 million in 5 Minnesota counties

Gov. Dayton has asked for a presidential disaster declaration for five counties in SW Minnesota after an ice storm earlier this month caused damages estimated at $26 million, said a report.

The three-day ice storm destroyed 3,000 power poles and damaged more than 800 miles of electric lines. “Thousands of damaged trees will likely have to be cut down,” said the report.

“We have to hope that we get a disaster declaration because there are no communities in Nobles County—and Worthington included—that have reserves in their budgets to handle the amount of cleanup effort that is going to be involved in getting the town back to the way it was prior to the ice event,” Worthington Mayor was quoted as saying.

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Other Disasters/ Significant Events

Kansas Declared Presidential Disaster Area

The Disaster President has declared a major disaster exists in the State of Kansas in 23 counties affected by a snowstorm during the period of February 20-23, 2013.

Persistent Drought in SW China’s Yunnan Province affects at least 12 million people

A villager looks at the dried-up pond in Qingshan Village of Qujing City, southwest China’s Yunnan Province, April 8, 2013. Over 12 million people have been affected by the lingering drought in the province. (Xinhua/Yang Zongyou). More images …

Where there is drought…

Photo taken on April 27, 2013 shows the site of a forest fire in Qinfeng Township of Lufeng County, southwest China’s Yunnan Province. (Xinhua/Xu Tao) More images…

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DISASTER CALENDAR – April 27, 2013—SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,050 Days Left

Mass die-offs resulting from human impact and the planetary response to the anthropogenic assault could occur by early 2016.

SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,050 Days Left to ‘Worst Day’ in the brief Human History

Two separate droughts across vast areas have affected at least ten million people, damaging or destroying large amounts of crops.

“Yunnan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces face the worst drought among the western regions of the country, with a total of 31.67 million mu (2.11 million hectares) of arable land affected, or 53 percent of the total arable land affected by drought across the country,” said the report.

At least 4.97 million people in southwest China’s Yunnan Province have been affected by the drought. More than 1.43 million people and 796,000 livestock lack sufficient drinking water.

“In Gansu, lingering drought that began last autumn has affected 3.123 million people 47 counties and districts of which 643,400 are still facing a drinking water shortage, according to the provincial Civil Affairs Bureau.”

More than one million people in Guizhou and Gansu provinces are facing drinking water shortages.

Floods ravage tourist resort town of Pokhara, Nepal, sweeping away dozens of people

Large masses of snow and ice slid down the Annapurna Mountain range blocking the Seti River in Kaski district, triggering extensive flooding south of mountain, and leaving scores of people dead or missing.

The “apocalyptic flood” swept away trucks and buses and forced the authorities to evacuate settlements on the river banks, reports said.

Other Global Disasters, Significant Events

China. A severe drought has affected about a million people in south China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and neighboring Guizhou province.

The drought has left at least 100,000 hectares of cropland parched and hundreds of thousands of livestock with little or no drinking water.

Millions of Chinese short of drinking water as drought destroys large swathes of cropland

Severe drought in China has left about 9 million people and tens of millions of farm animals short of drinking water, parching about 4 million hectares of farmland in Gansu, Hubei, Shanxi, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, drought-relief officials said.

SW China’s Yunnan province, which borders Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, is said to be the worst hit area.

Worst Ever Drought in SW China is Getting Even Worse!

The numbers of people and livestock short of drinking water in SW China have risen from 11 million and 2 million respectively just 5 days ago to more that 20 million people and 12 million livestock today.

The deadly drought is now spreading to other parts of China including the northwest, north and northeast China.

Up to 60 million people throughout China are now affected by severe drought, and experts say it can only get worse.

A massive dust storm swept across eastern China on March 12, 2010. The dust appears to have been transported by winds from the west, which is consistent with soil erosion caused by the drought. Source NASA. Click image to enlarge.

Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region in south China, one of the country’s poorest areas is suffering its worst drought in 58 years ever, with only 2.2 mm of rain since October 2009, People’s Daily reported.

“Since last September, rainfall in Guangxi, as well as neighboring Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, has fallen to the lowest levels since 1952, said the China Meteorological Administration. Coupled with persistent high temperatures, the lack of rain has resulted in a severe drought that is affecting about 11 million people.”

That report was released 5 days ago. The ongoing drought, which has lasted 3 harvests, has affected more than 6.5 million hectares of farmland across the country, today’s media report said.

“Relief work is becoming difficult because the dry conditions have lasted for such a long time, reducing available water sources.”

“Southwest China is facing the most severe situation. Nearly 90 per cent of China’s drought-affected farmland is in Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Sichuan and Chongqing. And more than half of that is in Yunnan province.” Zhang Xu, Dep. Director-General of Drough Relief HQ, was reported as saying.

“We should detail a water supply plan, consolidate water management, economize our use of water, and use every method to ensure water supply.”

Farmers in China’s Yunnan province face a bleak future, if the drought continues. Image captured from CCTV news. Image may be subject to copyright. Click image to enlarge.

The drought has affected the last three harvest seasons. Experts say the hot and dry weather will continue in southwest China for the foreseeable future.

These conditions in the region are described as the “worst in a century.” But no one really knows how bad the worst conditions might have been then.

The government is urging people to use water sparingly. The irony of it being that there is NO water to use, sparingly or not. The authorities were also quoted as saying that the “choice of whether to use water for people or farming is becoming more difficult.”

Surely, someone must have mistranslated that last line. They couldn’t possibly have meant that. Could they?

Image of the Day: Dried-up riverbed, Gansu Province, China

A local resident walks on a dried-up riverbed at Huangyangchuan reservoir in Lanzhou, Gansu province July 16, 2009. REUTERS/China Daily. Image includes NO state secrets, but may be subject to copyright.